Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Another year, another Tony Hawk game. Tony Hawk‚??s American Wasteland takes what the previous Tony Hawk games offered and improves upon everything. You are offered a wide variety of modes, Xbox Live play, the ability to create virtually anything, a kickin‚?? soundtrack, beautiful graphics and effects, and good voiceovers.

You play a nobody skater from Kansas that is headed towards Los Angeles in hopes of a better life and becoming a famous skater. When arriving in Los Angeles you run into a girl that wants to help you with your goals and wants to help you survive in your new environment. She later brings you to ‚??Skater Ranch‚?? where you meet your new friends and then try to pretty the place up by acquiring new items from all around the areas located in the game. While doing this your skater is also trying to become famous and become a pro skater.

Tony Hawk‚??s American Wasteland has very fun and variant gameplay. There are virtually hundreds of tricks you can do. There are also many things you can do to keep your combo going: revert, manual, grind, get off your skateboard and walk, sticker slap the wall (kicking yourself off the wall into the opposite direction), and more. Not only this, but you can get on a bike in Story Mode and ride around and do grinds, air tricks, and wheelies.

Story Mode is where you play as a nobody skater trying to make a name for himself. In this mode you will collect ‚??Skate Ranch‚?? pieces that will be new additions to the ‚??Skater Ranch.‚?? Throughout story mode you will encounter different people that will help you learn the tricks of the trade, in that I mean, how to play the game and the controls and physics of the game. You will learn everything from grinding, grab tricks, manualing, doing your special, and more. If you stop at your local skate shop you can check out what you have to do that day to earn experience which will increase your stats. You are also able to earn cash by doing tricks for bums on the street and spraying graffiti around the area for taggers. With this money you can buy new items for the skate ranch, buy new apparel, new skateboards, or new hair styles.

Along with Story Mode you can choose to play Classic Mode. Classic Mode is like the earlier Tony Hawk games where you must reach a certain score, do objectives in the area, collect SKATE, or collect COMBO. You have access to six levels with ten objectives in each level you must complete. Around each level you can also collect stat points to improve your skater‚??s stats. However, these stats are only for your Classic Mode skater, not the skater you play as in Story Mode.

As always you can create-a-anything in Tony Hawk‚??s American Wasteland. You can create your own park, skater, graphic, and trick. All of these features are in-depth and have nearly unlimited customization.

The graphics in THAW are quiet impressive for a skate boarding game. Character models are detailed and there is a lot of environment interaction. You can even smack the wall and a cracked imprint where you hit the wall will show. You are also placed in immersive levels with tons of things to look at and explore. But the best part is that between areas there is no leading at all, except a minor hiccup between areas, but that can be overlooked.

The sound in THAW is really well done which adds to the games value. When in Story Mode, everything is spoken, which means you don‚??t have to read anything (unless you want to). There is also a large track list with music from Rock to Hip-hop, which is played as if on a radio station. On top of all this, the voice overs are all done extremely well and the sounds of the skateboard and bike are realistic.

THAW has high replay value and should keep you busy for a while. Story Mode can be beaten in about ten hours but you will want to play it through again, especially on a higher difficulty, if you haven‚??t beaten it on ‚??Sick‚?? yet. Besides playing through Story Mode you can go old school and play through Classic Mode. Oh but wait, there‚??s more! Go ahead and create anything with the create-a-modes and go online and skate it up with your pals. If you can‚??t play online, don‚??t fret, invite a friend and tear up the streets in multiplayer mode.

Every year Activision takes the Tony Hawk games and improves upon their creation and THAW is no exception. With nice graphics and sound, fun gameplay, and high replay value, this isn‚??t a game that should be overlooked. Go ahead and buy it and enjoy it for months on end.